Credit: Anna WebberWhen David Crosby made his 2016 solo album Lighthouse, he enjoyed working so much with his main collaborators — Snarky Puppy frontman Michael League and singers Becca Stevens and Michelle Willis — that he decided to do another record with them, but insisted on the new one being a full-fledged group project.
That album, Hear If You Listen, arrived on October 26, and Crosby tells ABC Radio that the record showcases the undeniable chemistry that he and his collaborators share.
“I love what happens when the four of us sing together,” gushes the 77-year-old folk-rock legend. “It’s just a joy, man. The writing and the singing are…stuff that’s just precious to me beyond belief.”
With everyone contributing to the project, David said the album came together incredibly quickly.
“We walked into Michael’s studio with two songs and eight days later we had 11,” he reports.
Two tracks on the album, “1967” and “1974.” came together in an interesting manner, as Crosby says League convinced him to take rough demos he recorded in those years, and add new instrumentation and vocals to create original songs.
“Michael said, ‘What I want to try to do is be a time machine and drag you from then till now, successfully,'” recalls David. “And he pulled it off, I think.”
The album also features a newly arranged cover of Joni Mitchell‘s classic “Woodstock,” which Crosby says had been getting such a great response when he played it live with League, Willis and Stevens that they “couldn’t resist putting it on the record.”
Crosby and his Hear If You Listen collaborators recently kicked off a U.S. tour in support of the album that’s mapped out through a December 8 show in Port Chester, New York.
Here are all of the upcoming dates:
11/6 — San Francisco, CA, Castro Theatre
11/8 — Santa Barbara, CA, Lobero Theatre
11/9 — Monterey, CA, Golden State Theatre
11/10 — Thousand Oaks, CA, Fred Kavli Theatre
11/12 — San Diego, CA, Balboa Theatre
11/13 — Anaheim, CA, City National Grove
11/15 — Albuquerque, NM, National Hispanic Cultural Center
11/17 — Lawrence, KS, Liberty Hall
11/19 — Skokie, IL, North Shore Center for the Performing Arts
11/20 — Madison, WI, Capitol Theatre
11/24 — Cedar Rapids, IA, The Paramount Theatre
11/25 — Kalamazoo, MI, Kalamazoo State Theatre
11/28 — Kent, OH, The Kent Stage
11/29 — Frederick, MD, Weinberg Center for the Arts
12/1 — Albany, NY, The Egg Performing Arts Center
12/2 — Harrisburg, PA, Whitaker Center for Science and the Arts – Sunoco Performance Theater
12/4 — Derry, NH, Tupelo Music Hall
12/5 — Englewood, NJ, Bergen Performing Arts Center
12/7 — New Bedford, MA, Zeiterion Performing Arts Center
12/8 — Port Chester, NY, Capitol Theatre
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